Day 10 - A Royally Wicked Visit

Buckingham Palace Gardens

Today we decided to tour The State Rooms at Buckingham Palace.  They have a special exhibit celebrating the Queen's 60th year on the throne.  The exhibit included her coronation gown and robe as well as the dress two-year-old Princess Anne wore and the shirt and trousers five-year-old Prince Charles wore.

Queen Elizabeth II's Coronation Dress

The State Rooms are lush and beautiful.  Well worth the hour and half wait to get in.  You aren't allowed to take pictures once you're inside, but pictures are available for viewing on the Internet, which I will share. Being that Buckingham Palace is both a working palace and the London home of the Queen, you have to go through security, but once you're approved to enter, you are provided with an audio guide and in seconds you are stepping into a world few get to experience.

Buckingham Palace Throne Room

Hubby has a sort of odd sense of humor, so when we were in the the State Dining Room and the narrator told us that the room was set up as it had been when President Obama visited, he asked the room guide if he knew what President Obama thought of all the ropes they'd set up to protect the rooms.  The guide merely smiled.

Buckingham Palace State Dining Room

Because they are still celebrating the Queen's sixty years on the throne, they set up the State Banquet Room to match the way it was set up for parties thrown shortly after the Queen's coronation in 1952 down to the exact place settings and flowers.

Buckingham Palace State Banquet Room

Unfortunately, like I said, we couldn't take any pictures of the room's set up, so I can't share the set up with you, but the flower arrangements were white and pink.  We finished the tour around 6 PM aware that we had 7:30 PM tickets to see Wicked tonight as well.  We thought we had plenty of time.  We did make it, but not early enough for us to eat dinner before the show because we walked to the Apollo Victoria theatre from the palace.  I hadn't realized just how close the Buckingham Palace is to Victoria Station.  Well within walking distance, and probably only a brisk twenty minute walk, except we no longer walk very briskly.

Apollo Victoria at night

We've seen the show before, and always enjoy it.  What made this show special was it celebrated the seven year anniversary of the show in London.  Hundreds of green and pink balloons dropped from the ceiling with the words 7 years Wicked.  We have a picture of the balloons as well as the outside billboard, which I will go through and edit and post tomorrow.  In the meantime, I'll share the opening scrim of the show, which my naughty hubby snuck.

After the show, we shared our balloons with some passers-by then took the tube back to the flat and ate dinner, which were baguettes from Upper Crust.  That's it for tonight.  Will add more tomorrow.  Night.